When people think of hiring at pharmaceutical companies, research and development roles and sales positions such as medical representatives often come to mind.
Today, however, pharmaceutical companies also rely on a wide range of specialists who support medicines through development, regulatory approval, launch, and the work of maximizing their value after launch.
These include medical affairs professionals, who handle medical and scientific information about medicines and diseases; regulatory affairs specialists, who manage approval submissions and work with regulators; quality assurance professionals, who support product and manufacturing quality; market access specialists, who address drug pricing, reimbursement, and health economics; and digital professionals, who use data and AI to support decisions and change how teams work.
These specialists outside research and sales are becoming central to pharmaceutical companies’ competitiveness.
The reason lies in how the pharmaceutical business itself is changing.
Business Complexity, Rather Than Market Growth, Is Changing Hiring
In 2025, Japan’s prescription pharmaceutical market was worth approximately ¥11.7 trillion at drug price levels.
Over a longer period, however, the overall market has not grown rapidly. From fiscal 2015 to fiscal 2024, Japan’s pharmaceutical market grew at an average annual rate of approximately 0.4%.
This means companies cannot simply expand headcount across the board in line with market growth.
What has changed substantially is the complexity of the pharmaceutical business.
Fields such as oncology, rare diseases, regenerative medicine, and cell and gene therapies require increasingly specialized knowledge. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies must address drug pricing and healthcare policy, make use of real world data, adopt AI and digital tools, meet more demanding quality and compliance requirements, and work across global organizations.
As a result, hiring people who can solve specific business challenges is becoming more important than simply increasing the number of employees.
Which Specialists Are in Demand Beyond Research and Sales?
Several areas stand out:
- Medical affairs: Handling medical and scientific information about diseases and medicines; engaging in scientific exchange with healthcare professionals; developing medical strategy; and generating evidence.
- Regulatory affairs, quality, and CMC: Managing approval submissions and interactions with regulators; ensuring the quality of products and manufacturing processes; and developing chemistry, manufacturing, and controls strategies from development through commercialization.
- Market access: Considering how medicines are assessed and how patients can gain access to them, including through drug pricing, reimbursement, health economics, and policy.
- Data, AI, and digital: Understanding the work of functions such as R&D, medical affairs, sales, quality, supply chain, and finance, then applying data and AI to practical business challenges. This goes beyond a conventional IT support role.
Together, these functions support the journey of a medicine: developing it, obtaining approval, supplying it reliably, communicating its value, and getting it to patients.
Hiring Is Difficult Because Roles Require Multiple Areas of Expertise
Another challenge is that a growing number of positions cannot be filled through a single area of expertise alone.
Examples of the combinations companies seek include:
- Medical and scientific expertise × English communication skills × data literacy
- Quality and CMC experience × knowledge of digital systems
- Drug pricing and reimbursement expertise × health economics × business strategy
- Pharmaceutical industry expertise × AI and data skills × project management
At global pharmaceutical companies in particular, technical knowledge may not be enough. Professionals may also need to discuss issues with overseas teams, bring together colleagues from different functions, and move projects forward.
The same applies to functions such as finance and HR, even though these roles exist in many other industries.
Companies increasingly value roles close to the business and its decisions, such as FP&A professionals who support planning and management decisions, and HR business partners who work with business leaders on organization and talent strategy. The focus extends beyond routine accounting or HR operations.
Hiring in the pharmaceutical industry is therefore about more than deciding which job title to recruit for. Companies must consider which combination of capabilities a person needs.
AI Will Also Change Which Work Companies Entrust to People
Advances in AI and automation may accelerate this shift.
Standardized tasks, such as routine processing of safety information, assistance with quality documents, sales reporting, expense processing, and HR operations, are likely to become increasingly efficient through AI and other systems.
At the same time, the relative importance of work that requires expertise, judgment, and accountability is likely to grow. For example:
- How should a particular safety signal be assessed?
- Which quality risks should be addressed first?
- What pricing and market access strategy should be adopted?
- Which assets or disease areas should receive investment?
Hiring teams will therefore need to look beyond whether a candidate has performed a particular task. They will need to ask:
- What problems has the candidate solved using that experience?
- What judgments have they made?
- How have they helped move decisions forward across functions?
If companies continue to search using the same job titles and requirements, they may find a growing gap between the talent they need and the people available in the market.
Summary
- In the pharmaceutical industry, specialist functions beyond research and sales—including medical affairs, regulatory affairs, quality, CMC, market access, data, and AI—are becoming increasingly important.
- The driving force is not simply market growth. It is the increasing sophistication and complexity of the business, including more diverse treatment modalities, changes in regulation and drug pricing, greater use of data, and global collaboration.
- Hiring increasingly calls for combinations of capabilities, such as specialist knowledge and English communication skills, specialist knowledge and data skills, or specialist knowledge and business understanding.
- As AI and automation advance, companies will place greater value on people who can use their expertise to make judgments, shape strategy, and move work forward across departments.
The key to hiring in the pharmaceutical industry will increasingly be more than finding someone with experience in a particular role.
Companies need to define the challenges they expect to face and identify the combination of expertise needed to solve them.
That may be one of the most important perspectives for pharmaceutical hiring in the years ahead.